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Guus Hiddink faced personnel problems
The Russian national team flew to Tallinn yesterday, where tomorrow it will play the next qualifying match for the 2008 European Championship with Estonia. Not only Guus Hiddink and his team are preparing for the upcoming meeting, but also the Estonian authorities - tense relations between the fans of the two countries are seriously complicating the situation.The Estonian Football Association allocated 1,050 tickets to Russian fans, but in Tallinn there is little doubt that two-thirds of the 8.3 thousand “A. Le Coq Arena" will support the Russian national team. Already a week before the match, tickets with a nominal value of 17 euros could not be purchased for less than 100 euros, and even earlier, the Estonian authorities, concerned about the imminent appearance of aggressive fans, began weeding out unwanted tourists. Recently, in order to obtain an Estonian visa in Russia, it was necessary to present the original football ticket. In addition, visas were denied to several fans who had previously been seen clashing with police.
Most of these clashes took place in 2002. Russian fans placed banners “The hosts are back” and other similar slogans in their stands, which eventually turned into a clash with the police who decided to intervene. Two years ago, when the Russian team played again with Estonia (2006 World Cup qualifying game - 1:1), everything went smoothly. But this time in Tallinn they fear that the situation around the Bronze Soldier may escalate the situation. In any case, Russian fans are going to lay flowers at the monument to Soviet troops in the center of Tallinn. In turn, Estonian fans intend to organize a march from the city center to the stadium before the match. It is planned that at least 500 local fans will take part in this procession.
All this forces the Estonian authorities to take the upcoming football match very seriously, and the press secretary of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, Frank Persidski, just in case, issued a warning: “It is necessary to inform Russian fans: if riots occur in Tallinn, their instigators will not be able to enter later.” not only to Estonia, but also to other EU countries.”
However, if the Russian team does not win tomorrow in Estonia, then fans of the Russian national team will have nothing to do in Europe in the near future. So far, Hiddink's team is in second place in the Group E standings. However, the Russians have two games ahead of them against the English national team, and one against the Croats - their main competitors in the fight for reaching the final part of the tournament. If you approach them without at least a minimum points reserve, then the task of winning a ticket to the European Championship will be practically impossible.
So, willy-nilly, Guus Hiddink’s team will have to look for happiness in attack. Moreover, the defensive formations of the Russian national team suffered almost irreparable losses: CSKA defenders, the Berezutsky brothers, are injured, as is Dynamo player Denis Kolodin, who almost certainly will not have time to recover by Saturday. As a result, Hiddink was forced to invite 19-year-old Lokomotiv defense player Sergei Efimov, who played only two matches in the Russian Championship, to the national team, as well as 20-year-old Spartak player Roman Shishkin. The latter, by the way, has a good chance of appearing in the starting lineup - at the last training sessions, Hiddink worked out two options for building a defense (with three or four defenders), and Shishkin was involved in both. It is also possible that nominal midfielder Yuri Zhirkov will have to play in defense.
The team also has other losses. Yegor Titov unexpectedly refused to play for the national team, citing family circumstances as the reason for his decision. On Wednesday, Igor Semshov, who was ill, was sent home, and striker Pavel Pogrebnyak was disqualified for too many yellow cards. “The team is capable of playing with the current lineup. We can and will try to find a way out,” said Guus Hiddink. However, from his lengthy official speech, where he mentioned pride in the country, the growing youth, and the FIFA ranking, it remained unclear where this qualification for the European Championship was.
Group "E"
| 1. Croatia | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 13--3 | 10 |
| 2. Russia | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5--1 | 8 |
| 3. England | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6--2 | 7 |
| 4. Macedonia | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4--3 | 7 |
| 5. Israel | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9--6 | 7 |
| 6. Estonia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0--4 | 0 |
| 7. Andorra | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1--19 | 0 |
March 24: Estonia - Russia, Israel - England, Croatia - Macedonia. March 28: Andorra - England, Israel - Estonia.